9 January Ban Batubute, Ko Libong
0km
I put together my own breakfast
with muesli (brought from Salaya), banana cakes, yogurt, and hot Ovaltine while
the rest of the group ordered at food stalls, then we sat down at a little
sidewalk café, On a partly cloudy and haze morning we climbed the five-story
tower at the end of the pier, but again didn’t see any dugongs. The group headed
off to lunch, but I wasn’t hungry and instead got a motorbike-sidecar taxi for a
50-baht ride through rubber plantations to Point Dugongs, a limestone pinnacle
that soars above the coast and provides the best chance of seeing dugongs.
There’s a platform near the water here, but it’s too low for a good chance to
see dugongs. So I climbed steps, then clambered up a rough trail through a cave
to the second platform, which offers a grand panorama. Far offshore I could see
about 10 dugongs—large dark elongated shapes just below the surface. There’s a
third platform a bit higher and facing Ban Batubute, but is super steep and
rough. A young man proclaimed it ‘dangerous’ after going up. Chris and Ian later
made it here.
People of Ban
Batubute live close to the sea!
The village mosque
rises on the left in this view from Ban Batubute Pier.
Morning traffic is
light.
This
cave entrance leads to the heights of Point Dugongs.
Large openings let
in light inside Point Dugongs.
Ban Batubute Pier
from Point Dugongs
Back on the road I walked a little farther to Panyang
Beach, a local picnic spot. I strolled the length of the beach, populated with
lots of little hermit crabs. Nearby a monitor lizard crossed the road.
I
walked back to Ban Batubute, stopping to watch a man working a rubber processing
machine in one of the plantations. Oddly I never met up with the rest of the
group who also climbed Point Dugongs and visited Panyang Beach. At the
homestay in late afternoon I felt ‘walked out’ and didn’t go with the group on a
walk out in the shallows with a fisherman. The fisherman reported often seeing
dugongs, and the group found a feeding dugong, so I wished that I had joined the
others.
Messy work of
processing the rubber
Sheets of rubber
hung to dry
Ban Batubute
For dinner we hit Ja Nai
Seafood, perhaps the best restaurant in the village. I enjoyed a yellow curry
with vegetables. Areeya translated for me “no chilies” but little red specks
still found their way in—the perfect spice level for me. As last night, Eew
dined on her own food back at the homestay. The restaurant sold curious little
bottles of antiseptic made from coconut oil and sea slugs, but I wasn’t brave
enough to buy one.